Letters

May 5, 1999

My sister Frances in San Francisco has a birthday today. All together now, “Happy Birthday Frances!”

Thanks to all of you who were part of the 900-plus folks who slipped into Bogart’s the other night. We had big running-over buckets of fun sloshing that music all over each other, having the wind knocked out of us, wringing wet on the inside with bittersweet joy. You are good to us. Thanks again for ten unpredictable, rewarding years. Happy anniversary honey.

Do y’all like this music or what? Stacie basically blew through the first 1000 copies of Amateur Shortwave Radio in two days trying to fill your orders and now we have to sit around for a week waiting for the second (and larger) batch to arrive so she can continue. Give that Stacie some encouragement. She’s barefoot in the office with an incessantly ringing phone, faxes, e-mails, a box of solo piano records on one arm, a conductor’s baton in the other, a sharp pencil behind each ear and somehow she’s the calm in the midst of the storm. It’s amazing. It may take several weeks, but believe me, she’s gonna take care of you, your order is in good hands.

We’ll be doing four shows in June with a flashy formidable five-piece: Karin Bergquist, Brain Kelley, G. Jack Henderson, David LaBruyere and yours truly. We hope to do a big outdoor show in late August with everybody. More on that later.

The gathering at Kaldi’s Saturday morning was gloriously serene. Three endearing people showed up and Karin and I had breakfast with them and also chatted with Katie Laur and other friends at Kaldi’s and then Jack, David, Brian and Mallory wandered in and we drank too much coffee, tired and happy. Three people! Life is good.